New Avengers: Symposium
by Danrilor
Summary: The New Avengers take a night off between world-saving adventures, but their night is about to go in an unexpected direction thanks to a secret wager between Eros and Sersi. A story about love for adults. Please R&R and suggest pairings.
1. Prologue

**New Avengers: The Symposium**

Synopsis: The New Avengers take a night off between world-saving adventures, but their night is about to go in an unexpected direction thanks to a secret wager between Eros and Sersi. A story about love for adults and those mature in manners of the heart (not to mention a tip of the hat to "A Midsummer Night's Dream").

Category: Marvel

Genre: Drama/Romance

Rating: M for mature themes, sex, adult language, and odd pairings.

Author's Notes: This story is based on canon but kind of continuity neutral, because I wanted to use the characters that I wanted to use and that was the end of it. I never liked the New Avengers concept while it was going on (being a deeply traditional Avengers fan), but considering what we have to work with these days I miss them now that they are gone. This story is a love story about the loves that got away, never happened, or maybe that you did not appreciate fully while you had them.

**Prologue: The Invitation**

_The story goes that all people were created by the gods._

_But then the gods got bored._

_So then the gods created love... and then they wern't bored anymore!_

_It looked so much fun that they decided to try it for themselves._

_And then they invented laughter... so that they could stand it._

**_"Feast of Love"_**

Two glasses of red wine sparking in candlelight.

A man and a woman, eyes locked in mischief.

A fireplace, a balcony, a bearskin rug.

Tender laughter between them.

Any observer would see the bloom of love in such a scene, but they would be wrong.

"That is such a wicked plan, Eros." Sersi laughed. "Would you truly go to such lengths to prove a point?"

"When the point is one I have debated with you all these centuries, Sersi? I would go to any lengths."

As their names implied, these two had lived very long lives and figured into the mythology of people that were now dust. Having spent a great expanse of time on different planets, they had mutually hoped that this debate would not surface upon this meeting. They had hoped that the intervening years would have wiped it from the memory of the other. However, given the purpose of the visit it was probably a forgone conclusion that it would rear its ugly head. The gods, it is said, have very long memories.

"Could we not just forget this silliness and go to bed?" Sersi asked before sipping her wine.

"That is the substance of this endless debate." Eros sighed "It is not something that we can just enjoy like this meal that we are finishing. It is something more."

"Am I the only one that gets to see this side of you?" Sersi laughed.

"Well, I do have a certain reputation to maintain, but that is another matter."

"So here we are again." Sersi sighed "Pondering that vexing question."

"Does love conquer all?" Eros said "You know my answer."

"And you know mine."

"After all these years, do you not remember Odysseus?" Eros pleaded.

"After all these years, have you forgotten Persephone?" Sersi laughed.

"Touche." Eros said "There is only one way that we can settle this."

"Normally I would not even venture to play this game with you, but your plan is so utterly repugnant that I cannot help but see the upside. Mortals do not appreciate your meddling any more than they savor being transformed into pigs. Trust me in this."

"Love is transformitive in itself. It knows no bounderies or limitations, no laws or rules or strictures. Love is a song written on the very air we breathe."

"Spare me the poetry." Sersi laughed "I have heard many such pretty tongues, even though I found them fit for only one other task."

"Do we have a deal, then?"

"Consider your foul wager struck." Sersi said in a sultry tone as she slowly stood from the table and pushed the thin straps of her dress from her shoulders. "Now to bed!"

"As a mistress commands, a man must obey." Starfox said with no sign of regret in his tone. "We will send out the invitations tomorrow."

As they walked together to the bed, he shed his robe and she divested herself of her nightgown. They took one another's hand and walked together without a hint of modesty about their mutual nakedness.

"Do you wish to be the man or the woman tonight?" Sersi asked as they both sank to the soft silk bedding.

"Surprise me." Eros said with a smile.

**Dramatis Personae:**

_Eros - An Eternal of Titan_

_Sersi - An Eternal of Earth_

_Steve Rogers - Captain America_

_Sharon Carter - Agent of SHIELD_

_Peter Parker - Spider-Man_

_Mary Jane Parker - Jackpot Prize_

_Logan - Wolverine_

_Jean Grey - Pheonix_

_Matt Murdock - Daredevil_

_Maya Lopez - Ronin_

_Luke Cage - Don't call him Power Man_

_Jessica Jones - Private Detective_

_Danny Rand - Iron Fist_

_Colleen Wing- Butt kickin' Samurai Babe_

_Tony Stark - Iron Man_

_Natalia Romonova - The Black Widow_

_Jessica Drew - Spider-Woman_

_Jack Russell - A freakin' WEREWOLF!_


	2. The Gathering

**New Avengers: Symposium**

**ACT I: Symposium**

_**"I maintain that Love is not only the oldest and most honorable of the gods, but also the most powerful to assist man in the the aquisition of merit and happiness, both here and hereafter."**_

**_Phaedrus in Plato's Symposium_**

**Chapter One: The Gathering**

If there was one thing that could not be said of Sersi and Eros, it is that they never did anything small. The invitation to their mid-summer "get together" was sent the Avengers Tower in a most unusual way. It was not printed on cream colored cards or even engraved on a cake, but rather painted on the bodies of a very attractive group of nude dancers who teleported suddenly onto the Avengers meeting table halfway through their after action discussion of a particularly trying mission.

"What the hell!" Spider-Man yelped as a stripper leaped into his lap with an alacrity that defeated his spider sense. She turned around and began a grind into his groin area that his spandex costume did absolutely nothing to protect him from.

Luke Cage faired no better, as there was suddenly a woman on each of his tremendously muscled arms, but unlike Spider-man he could not help but erupt into a large grin and a deep rumble of laughter.

Captain America had a shield to protect him, but it did not seem a defense sufficient to the purpose when he realized that the young woman in front of him was licking it in circular motions like it was an enormous lollipop.

Iron man stoicly accepted the attentions of his admirer, even feeling amused as she attempted to french kiss him through his mouth slit. His plexiglass guard prevented that nicely, but he still found it a nice gesture.

Sentry hovered in the air, doing his best to ignore the woman spreading her legs below him and beckoining him downward with a crooked finger.

The men who had appeared in front of Ronin and Spider-Woman both stepped back and covered their groins, as the woman secretly known as Echo had taken the liberty of drawing both her swords (swiping at their manhood close enough for them to have lost a few hairs).

Jessica Drew clung to the ceiling laughing at Spider-Man's plight.

"Sersi." Captain America stated simply, seeing the invitation on the belly of the woman who was preening herself in front of him.

"Can I take that as a yes to my invitation, Captain?" Her telepathic voice hummed through all of their minds.

"If that is what it takes for you to withdraw this sordid spectacle... that is a 'hell yes!'" Steve Rogers said aloud.

"It is agreed." Sersi laughed in their minds "Don't be late."

The nude dancers disappeared as quickly as they had manifested themselves, leaving only a swirling swathes of the silk cloth that seemed to be their only attempts at modesty.

Spider-Man struggled to his feet, not seeming to notice that one of the silk scarves were hanging suspiciously directly below his belly button. His spandex, after all, were not exactly blue jeans.

"Please don't tell Mary Jane." Spider-Man begged Cage, who was snickering through his efforts not to look at the hanging scarf.

Iron-man picked up one of the scarves and read the invitation aloud:

"15th of July, 1430 Central Park West. Sersi presents the Summer Symposium, a traditional gathering in the ancient tradition. Bring the one that you love and adore the most and share the greatest gift in the human experience. Wine, dancing, and song will be enjoyed by all."

"That... doesn't sound so bad, actually." Jessica Drew said from her perch on the ceiling.

"We've all been through the wringer lately." Captain America admitted "It might be beneficial for us all to just be... people for a night. We are still so new to one another that it could only help in our team building."

"Leave it to you to think about it in that context, Steve." Iron Man laughed. "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad just for once to have fun for fun's sake."

"I am all over it." Luke Cage said "If the rest of you want to be suckers on Saturday night, I ain't holding you back, but you can bet I'm going to be there with my favorite lady and my best threads!"

A nearby sound of a flushing toilet interrupted what Sentry was about to say, and Wolverine staggered out of the bathroom door smoking a big, stinky cigar.

"Did I miss anything?" The diminutive mutant asked in a raspy voice as he belatedly zipped up his fly.

The gathering of heroes could not think of a single thing to tell him.

* * *

"I cannot attend this function." Sentry told Captain America very directly after the meeting was adjourned. "I would not be... fit company."

"I understand, Bob." The Captain responded after a moment of silence.

This was all so difficult for them all. Sentry was an important part of their team but an enigma in so many other ways. They were all supposed to have an extensive history with this man, but none of them remembered it. It was almost as if it had never happened as far as they were concerned. Not only were there no memories, but there was little evedence. He seemed little more than a walking, talking reminder of what could happen to any of them: to disappear and be forgotten through some whim of fate. To emerge with a broken mind and without a single friend, having lost everything.

"My wife and I... Lindy... we have a joint counseling session that night." Sentry admitted.

"I will be sure to give the host your regrets."

"Here is the... invitation." Sentry said as he handed over the silk scarf pinched between two fingers "Maybe someone can go in my place."

As the most powerful of the Avengers walked away Cap regarded both the invitations that he clutched in his hands. He was certain that Sersi wouldn't mind, as she always seemed to believe in the term "the more the merrier." However, he could not think of who else might wish to attend.

"Whatcha got there, Cap?" Luke Cage said as he walked out of the meeting room.

"Sentry needed to beg off. Do you have any idea who might like to go in his place?"

"Are you kidding?" Luke Cage laughed "I don't go anywhere without my brother from another mother!"

* * *

Luke Cage hated knocking on doors. He didn't know how anybody with super strength did it without knocking them down. So it was with the upmost gentleness that he rapped a thunderous knock on the gigantic door of Danny Rand's penthouse.

Danny opened the door himself, which was a very endearing trait for someone who could afford an army of butlers. He was predictibly dressed in a silk robe and slippers, soaked with sweat. No matter how many times Luke visited, he always seemed to be practicing the fine oriental art of kicking ass.

"Danny!" Cage smiled with his arms spread wide.

"Uh oh." Iron Fist said as his eyes widened. "I know that look."

"It is on, Danny! It is ON!" Cage said as he handed his oldest friend the silken invitation.

Danny looked over the invitation with a jaundiced eye, skepticism clouding his features.

"Who is this woman?" Danny asked "Does Jessica know about this?"

"Are you kidding, chump? My sweet baby mama has been chomping at the bit to get out of the house ever since the kid was born."

"I don't think that I can do this." Rand said with only a touch of actual regret, running his hand through his blond hair "I just broke up with Misty, and I've only been on one date... I don't know if I am comfortable asking her along as my..." he looked at the invitation "one I love most."

"You got a woman and you didn't tell me!" Cage roared. "I was just gonna get you a hooker!"

"I can get my own... I mean... dammit Luke!" Danny sputtered in frustration, throwing down the invitation and storming back into the penthouse.

"Who's the lucky girl, Danny?" Cage needled him "If you don't tell me you know I got my ways of finding out."

The two men looked at each other with glares and set jawlines, neither one backing down an inch.

Danny finally blinked first "It's Colleen." Danny sighed.

"Whoa!" Luke Cage nearly recoiled in surprise.

"Yeah." Iron Fist said with a rueful smile.

"Remind me never to break your heart, Danny. You are one ruthless motherfucker." Cage shook his head "Misty's best friend?"

"She was my friend first." Danny responded evenly.

"How friendly did it get, my man?"

"Very." Dan said, bending down to pick up a samurai sword that had been laying on the couch.

"You mean..."

"Hello, Luke." Colleen Wing said as she stepped out from behind a rice paper screen, wearing a robe and slippers identical to the ones Danny was wearing... and nothing else.

"Sweet Christmas." Luke said in disbelief.

"Luke..." Colleen said with a smile "Your timing has always sucked."

* * *

Tony Stark had an enormous black book.

While most men had what they called a "Little black book" Tony had a database that filled up the better part of three gigabytes, which was significant given how each entry contained little more than a name, phone number, and brief description. Most of them were women from his playboy days, long before he revealed his identity to the world. He found himself flipping through the screens in the heads up display of his helmet as he flew over the choppy Atlantic ocean. Sometimes he liked to fly down the coastline to clear his head, but often found that it worked better when he lived along the Pacific. He flew down a beach not far from Atlantic city and settled down in the swirling cloud of sand his boot jets created. He wondered if she was here. He had been careful to dead-drop the usual message in the usual place, but that was not always sufficient to entice her. He was, as always, as slave to her capricious mood.

He strode toward the beach house, knowing that he had little choice but to wait for her. He was in for a surprise, however. Before he reached the sliding glass door on the enormous deck he saw her standing behind the glass wearing nothing but a towel, dripping wet and waiting. He saw that her hair was dyed jet black once again. He had always loved it like that.

The door slowly slid open and she stepped out onto the porch, dropping her towel as she purred at him in a husky voice with a sexy accent.

"That's new, Tony." She said as she walked toward the hot tub. "Usually, you arrive in the Rolls Royce."

"I came directly from a meeting at Avengers Tower." Iron Man's mechanical voice hummed before Tony removed his helmet. "I didn't expect you to be here so soon.

"Maybe I was already here because I was thinking of you." She said as she slid into the warm water of the hot tub, but then turned with a wink, droplets of water clinging to her breasts like diamonds "Or maybe I am meeting with another lover."

Tony couldn't help but smile. The woman known as the Black Widow was more bite than bark.

"You have never been anything but dangerous, Natalia." Tony said as he labored with the disassembly of his armor.

"You remember the days when we were not on the same side, but things were not so different between us. Our greatest battles have always been fought between the sheets." She teased him.

Tony finally joined her in the tub, wearing as little as she was.

"Some battles you fight to win..." Tony said, relaxing directly in front of her "Others are a pleasure to lose."

"So... is today to be a battle, business, or pleasure."

"An invitation." Tony said simply, dispensing with the verbal fencing.

Natalia suddenly became grave "You know that I cannot stand that woman."

Tony shouldn't have been surprised that she already knew. She was, after all, a spy.

"It is not about her, but rather about us." Tony said.

"How so?"

"We have been together for years, off and on, but we have never been seen together." Tony said

"That never bothered you before."

"It does not bother my now." Tony admitted "I've just been wondering if things between us could possibly go to... another level."

The Black Widow smiled.

"I never thought that you would be the one to say that."

"So what do you say?" Tony put it out on the line. If she said no, there was always the rest of the black book.

"Maybe one night with the insufferable Sersi will not be the end of me." Natalia said, her toes brushing against Tony's leg "Perhaps it could just be the beginning..."

* * *

"Honestly... who prints an invitation on a perfectly good silk scarf?" Mary Jane Parker sighed before taking a long whiff of the scarf "Oooooh. I need to know what perfume this is."

Peter sat in the overstuffed chair in his Spider-man costume, sans the mask. It seemed so odd just hanging around the tower with Mary Jane, superheroes all over the place who knew his real identity and Aunt May in the kitchen playing footsie under the table with Jarvis. The weeks that they had spent since moving to the Tower had been eventful and educational. He wondered if this was how the Avengers had always lived back in the mansion. It was like having brothers and sisters for the first time in his life. He knew that he was enjoying it, but he was wondering how Mary Jane felt about it. There had already been one incident, with a tabloid reporter speculating that she was having an affair with Tony Stark. Peter desperatly wanted this to work out, but it all depended on how Mary Jane felt... and uncharacteristically she wasn't talking about that.

"We simply need to go." Mary Jane said with a huge smile "Tell me that we can go, Tiger!"

"I don't know..." Peter said as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck "What do you know about this lady?"

"She is one of the hottest names on the New York party circuit. Getting an invitation from her is kind of a once in a lifetime occurrence, because she has a reputation for being easily bored and hardly ever invites the same people twice. She also only throws four parties a year, but I have heard that they are always a blast."

"Well... that's a lot." Peter said in surprise "All that I ever heard was that she turns people who piss her off into barnyard animals."

"Can we go?" Mary Jane asked, clutching the silk scarf to her breast.

Peter wasn't the party type, but he knew his wife through and through. Her picture was int he dictionary under "Party Animal." Even though she had mellowed as the years went by there was still that spark underneath it all, and it was what he loved about her. When she was like this, there was no saying no.

"Alright." Peter conceded, and MJ fell into his lap, throwing the scarf behind his neck and pulling him in for a passionate kiss.

"I just hope that I don't make an ass of myself... or get turned into one."

* * *

Jessica drew had been many things in her life, a Superhero only being the latest of them.

When she lost her powers for several years she had worked as a private detective, and when she needed to find somebody, she invariably fell back on those skills. In this particular case, it was a necessity. After all, Jessica had never exactly had what could be considered a normal love life. When your childhood and adulthood had both been shaped by nothing more than your abilities and how others planned to exploit them, normal human relationships went out the window pretty quickly. When your body excluded pheromones that made any man on earth as horny as a goat and any woman as hostile as a bitch in heat it was difficult to tell who your true friends and lovers really were. In short, Jessica's love life had made Peter Parkers look like Hugh Hefner's in comparison.

There was one man, though, that she kept finding her way back to, and she had a tip from an old informant that he could be found here. The bar was called McCabes, and mostly catered to aging Irish gentlemen who prefered getting shit faced and singing songs from the old country to the more youthful social pursuits that most New York bars had moved toward. At present it was better than half empty, and unusually sedate. She got more than one lecherous look as she walked though the scattered groups of old men, but knew better than to show any interest. If there was one thing she had learned about men, they mistook any small kindness from her as genuine sexual interest. In her case, they truly couldn't help it. She locked her eyes on her objective, predictably at the end of the bar.

"Hello Jess." The man said without turning around, taking a sip from a highball glass filled with scotch.

"How do you do that?" She asked in genuine puzzlement. He might have been the only man in the world that she couldn't sneak up on.

"Only one woman in the world makes me feel what you do." He answered "I don't have to see it coming. I can smell it."

Jessica Drew felt herself melting inside. She wrapped one arm around his shoulder and let her head rest on his other one.

"I'm sorry." She whispered in his ear.

"Don't be." He whispered back, gently resting his hand on her forearm.

"You mind if I sit down?" She asked before giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"It was still a free country the last time I checked."

Jessica sat down and demurely crossed her legs in his direction, but he did not change the orientation of his body one bit. His belly was practically biting into the bar. He did turn to look her in the eye, and one side of his mouth did something that seemed to be an attempt at a smile.

"I've missed you, Jack." She said.

"Not as much as I've missed you." Jack Russell admitted.

"Where have you been?"

"The usual. Backroads, old highways, uncharted wilderness." Russell said before taking another drink "Anywhere I can hide. Anywhere I don't have to worry about hurting or scaring anybody."

"Lets not talk about that here." She requested "Lets just... focus on the positive."

The two of them regarded each other silently, drinking in the sight of one another. They has always shared a fascination and perhaps an infatuation with one another, but the one thing that had finally brought them together had been a connection of another sort. They both had their origins in Wundagore mountain, a place where the line between animal and human was considerably blurry to say the least. It was this animal attraction that had drawn them together time after time. The upside to that was that they could often know what the other desired without resorting to words. The drawback was that at times they did not have much to say.

"Is there something on your mind?" Jack asked with that half smile.

"Let me ask you this..." She leaned in really close, lips almost touching his ear "When is the last time you had a really, really good time?"

* * *

They called her Ronin, but her real name was Echo.

She was born with the name Maya Lopez, but that was just a name given to an infant, a potential person. Echo was the name given to the person that she had become, and who she really was. She was a person forged in the fires of tragedy and adversity, living in a silent world that those with hearing could never understand. But she had the best pair of eyes in the world: ones that never forgot what they had seen, able to perfectly duplicate what they could perceive. That was the secret under the Ronin suit: a perfect recorder whose only conception of music was the violence that she absorbed, duplicated, and inflicted. She normally would pay no mind to such an invitation as she had recieved today. However, looking down at the silk scarf in her hands there was just something to it... some note of challenge... that she could not ignore.

Echo loved a challenge.

She walked through Hell's Kitchen near midnight without a single ounce of fear. The silence of the streets that others would find so very disconcerting was simply the constant state of her existence. She could smell the predators that huddled among the garbage in the shadows. Every so often one would creep out to take a look at her, but then they would see the white hand print upon her face and think the better of it. They knew her here, and they feared her here, just as they feared the man she was going to see. For such a woman as her, perhaps the only fit mate would be the devil himself.

She walked up the stairs, wondering if he would even be home at this hour. If she knew him as well as she thought she did he would be out in the darkness, punishing those who believed that they owned the night in the kitchen. Maybe that was why she was here now. She was not given much to self reflection, but at the moment she wondered if she subconsciously wished to fail in this mission. She wondered if she really would rather be alone.

She knocked on the door, a gesture that has always meant nothing to her but was an essential courtesy for those with hearing. It was an absurdity in this case, approaching a man who would hear her every step as loudly as a knock and identify her heartbeat before she touched the door. It was no surprise to her that he opened the door in the middle of the knock.

Matt Murdock smiled at her, and she read off of his lips that he was saying hello and that it was an unexpected pleasure to see her. Sometimes it was hard to keep up with exact wording, so she had become adept at taking the words that she did capture and place them in an understandable context.

"It is good to see you too, Matt. May I come in?" She had always spoke as softly and carefully as she could manage, very self conscious of speaking too loud or unintelligibly as she was incapable of knowing what sounds came from her mouth save by memory. She had no idea that her powers helped her in that regard, and that her elocution was such that most people she encountered never guessed she was deaf.

Matt said that she was welcome to come in, and she followed him into the apartment.

He gestured for her to take a seat, and perhaps said the same but it was dark in his apartment and she could not read his lips. She took the liberty of turning on the lamp next to the chair, as he often disregarded the need for light. She was deaf and he was blind, so they made an odd couple. Maybe that was why it has never worked out before.

When he returned he had a tab soda in his hand. He knew that it was her favorite, and she knew that he didn't drink it. The fact that she offered it to her told her a great deal. When he handed it to her their fingers brushed against one another's, lingering a moment longer than necessary. She felt her heart starting to quicken, and hoped that he did not notice.

He reiterated that he was happy to see her, but asked why she was visiting. She instantly thought of an excuse but just as quickly disregarded it, because it was pointless to lie to this man. She wanted to do nothing to make him suspicious, because she had already tried to kill him once... which was not an easy thing for anyone to forget.

"I'm embarrassed to say." She said, which was true.

He said that it was all right, that he understood, and that if she needed any help he would be happy to provide it.

She looked into his eyes, without the trademark green eyeglasses, but they did not focus on her. Her own eyes roamed over every inch of him that was visible. The red hair on his head and the red stubble on his chin. The slight dip below his lip and the muscles on his arms. The powerful and graceful shape of his thighs. She just wanted to look at anything but those eyes, that saw nothing while seeming to capture everything. She felt a warmth between her legs, and knew instantly what it was. The warmth spread to her face when she realized that he must be able to smell it. He always had this effect on her.

He reassured her that it was ok, and that she could tell him without being embarassed. If he could smell her secretions, he made no indication.

"I miss you Matt." She finally said.

He said that he missed her too. She wished so much that she could have heard those words in order to know the sincerity of them. Then she felt his hand on her cheek and he knelt on the ground in front of her.

She had no difficulty feeling the sincerity in his kiss.

* * *

The coffee cup hit the table much more solidly than she had intended, sending a drop spilling over the corner of the cup.

"You want me to WHAT?" Sharon Carter nearly snarled, taken aback at the very proposition that she had just heard.

Steve Rogers rolled back in his chair, surprised at her fury. It was just a casual remark, a casual invitation over coffee. Now everyone in the cafe was staring. It was as if he has just asked her for a public blow job.

"I..." Cap began, but was interrupted.

"You break up with me not once, not twice, but three times..."

"The second time you broke up with..."

"... and THEN you ask me to be your arm candy at this swanky party thrown by your ex-girlfriend..."

"We never..."

"...who has been alive since the damn Punic Wars..."

"She is older than..."

"... and you expect me to just bend over and take it like a..."

"Sharon!" Cap finally unleashed his voice of command, which was the only thing short of a gag or a bullet that could silence Sharon Carter, Agent of SHIELD.

She glared at him silently.

"Sharon." He said more softly "You don't have to get so sore all the time. I already know how tough you are. It was just an invitation. If you don't want to go... just say no."

"Yeah. Right. Just say no. Perfect." Sharon said, a little more calmly but with twice as much sarcasm "So what? I say no and you ask the Lawyer, or that whore with the purple hair, or God knows who..."

"You know what, Sharon." Cap said, standing up and throwing a few dollars on the table "Forget about it."

Sharon could only stare as he turned and walked toward the door, then suddenly stopped and looked back.

"I asked you. Only you." He said, and then he was as quickly out the door.

Before she knew it, as if her feet had minds of their own, Sharon was pursuing him down the crowded street.

"Steve!" She yelled at his back "Stop! Please!"

Cap slowly came to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk, oblivious pedestrians walking around him like a tree stump parting a river.

She walked right up to him and put her hand on his chest, looking him right in the eyes.

"It is so hard." Sharon said "Why can't it just be easy?"

It had never been easy for either of them. At first they had a professional relationship that he did not want to breach, once they had he discovered that her older sister had been his lover, then when they had gotten past that she had seemingly died. By the time she had come back into his life they were both over each other, and the love they had shared had become a strong antagonism. But somehow that passion had become another kind, and they were back in one another's arms. It had not, however, ever been anything close to easy.

"What do you want Sharon?" Cap asked "I try to get closer and you push me away. You tell me to find someone else and then resent me when I do. I extend you an olive branch and you snap it in half..."

"I don't know what I want, Steve." Sharon said "I only know what I need."

They kissed there in the middle of the street, all but invisible in the tide of unseeing New Yorkers.

"I'll go." She said "I just want it to be uncomplicated for once."

"I'll try to keep it simple." Steve said "We'll do our best."

* * *

Wolverine is the best there is at what he does.

This isn't it.

Looking down at the telephone and the ridiculous scarf he did not really know what to do. Being a person not very given to self reflection he was unsure what attending this function would accomplish. He had always been the type who was reluctant to join a club that would have him as a member, but he had more often then not found himself a team player nonetheless. In fact, he was currently a member of two such teams. There was only one teammate, however, that he would think of calling.

"Jean." He rasped into the receiver of the phone.

"Logan." She replied in just as low a voice "What is it? It is very late."

"I need your help, Darlin'. Do you think that you could meet me at Killigan's"

"Logan. We've been through this." Jean sighed. "I've got too much respect for myself and my husband to put myself in a position where things could be... misconstrued."

_Oh yeah? Well where has Slim been spending his nights?_ He thought. He was lucky that he was far enough away that she could not read it off my mind.

"It isn't about that. I need a telepath for a mission with the Avengers." Wolverine said as he lit a cigar.

"Oh really? Then why do you want to meet at a bar?"

"Restaurant." Wolverine corrected. "I just need to fill you in on the details. I was a little hungry and figured we might have that in common."

Jean was silent for a moment.

"I'll be there in a few minutes. A bite to eat and tell me what this mission is all about, but I can't be gone long."

"It's a deal. I'll be waiting that the bar." Logan said with a touch of humor.

Jean made that snorting sound that she made when she was trying not to laugh, and then hung up.

Wolverine was not lying to her. He was complying with the instructions of the invitation, sure, but in his opinion something smelled about the entire deal and he needed Jean in his corner to get to the bottom of it.

Wolverine always trusted his nose, and it had never let him down.

* * *

Jessica Jones had a way of slipping between the cracks. Some would even call that her super power.

Her real super powers involved super strength, flying, and generally being a little tougher than the average bear. Her real talent, though, was between her ears. She was an investigator, and pretty doggone good at it. She had made a decent living as a private detective and as an investigative reporter. There days, however, she was a coffee drinker. A serious coffee drinker.

Looking down at the sleeping angel in the crib she had difficulty reconciling it with the screaming demon that had kept her awake most of the night. By all right she should be trying to catch some sleep while Danielle did, but she was restless for some reason. She thought that it had something to do with the silk scarf that Luke had shown her before going to visit Danny (an engagement that he had yet to return from). It was an example of the way that she could just slip through the cracks. Luke had not even asked her if she wanted to go, or asked her if she had a babysitter, or asked her if she was comfortable with either the host or the company. He had just assumed, and assumption was the mother of all fuck ups.

She walked out to the balcony of the apartment that they shared. He had asked her many times if she wanted to move into the Stark Tower along with the other members of the team, but she had refused. It would make it a little too real for her: Luke was an Avenger, with Captain America, Iron Man and the works. What was even worse... would her presence in the tower make her an Avenger too? The very thought moved her to panic.

She knocked a Marlboro light out of a half crushed pack and lit it with a disposable lighter that she hid behind a dying house plant. Luke had wanted her to quit since he first heard about the pregnancy, but it was just not that easy. It was never easy quitting old habits, whether they be drinking, smoking, or being a costumed do-gooder. It had taken many years and at least two aliases for her to figure that out. She took another drag and looked back at the little home that they had made, realizing that none of it would have been possible without those dark days.

The truth was that she was afraid. Afraid of the costumes and how much she had needed them. Afraid of the others who wore the costumes and did the things that she was addicted to. She was afraid to go to this party, she knew, because she was afraid to be compared to these people. What way could she ever measure up? She wasn't even Jewel or Knightress anymore... just little old Jessica Jones.

She crushed out the cigarette and threw it into the night. She knew that she would go to this party. Not for herself, but for Luke. One thing that she learned was that avoiding the things that you feared profited you nothing. She turned back into her apartment to lay down next to little Danielle for some much needed rest. She could worry about it some more tomorrow.

She figured if she was going to face up to her fears, Love was as good a place to start as any.

**Next Issue: The Dance**

**_The party gets started in earnest, but sparks really start to fly when the hosts insist that the couples switch dance partners. What is Eros' dasterdly plan and what does it mean for the Avengers?_**

_Author's note: I know that Jean Grey is supposed to be dead at this point, but the X-men without Jean is like peanut butter without jelly. Please read, review, and let me know what pairings you are interested in seeing. It is going to be a wild ride - D._


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